Interesting find from Dx neutral white drop-in

Thanks for checking for me. If you're happy @ .6A draw, then I cant wait to get this into my 504B. It should last forever at that current. If I dont like it, I'll simply swap the driver.

It just shipped. That was fast! I should see it in about 3 weeks and will report back on how the driver performs. Thanks again!

Damn DX, I'm pretty sure I ordered my second one before you and it's still pending.

I ordered mine on 9/5.

8/31, still "awaiting stock". They figured I already had one.... why rush.

Same here! Grrrr.

Now I wonder if they sent my the right dropin.

Im looking forward to the 5A tint. Check out a tint comparison I found on CPF:

My second still hasn't shipped, but FlashPilot, I did measure brightness on 2 lithiums.

About 2.2 times brighter (center spot) on the lightmeter I just recieved.

Thanks but Im not sure that I understand you.

Are you saying that it is 2.2 times as bright on 2 x lithium cells than one 1 x lithium cell? Please explain.

Yes. Looks to be about linear (or slightly more) with voltage, implying the current is held flat from at least ~4v to 8v. I actually have a bench supply to find the whole curve, but I haven't pulled it out in ages.

So... it sounds like this would do better with 2 x 16340 than on 1 x 18650? If so, the driver seems better optimized for 8.4V. Lets hope I get the same driver as you.

First of all, I'd like to apologize to anyone who bought this because I said it was a 2 mode light. It is not. Now, the reason behind this:

I recieved this on the same day my solarforce L2 came in. I stuck it in and it is two modes. I liked it so much I never took it back out. But this was not because the drop-in was two modes, and today I found out why. The tailcap on the L2 is two stage??!!!ones??? I found out only because I was testing it with two lithiums for FlashPilot and the "low" mode in that case was not the same proportionate linear drop compare with that of one battery, which is suspicious for a more advanced density regulated driver. I'm going to investigate further when I get time.

I've never had a host with a switch like that, or any stock light for that matter. Are all L2 solarforce tails like that?? My L2r certainly isn't. I've never heard of it nor can I find any info on the web that states this. I bought this in Sand from ITC.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that you can keep following my misplaced recommendations and get a L2 like mine (what better excuse?). :D

I still like it a lot and it's my go-to light in this config.

Also, to address the 2 battery issue: I think this is going to be very clos to the limite for the emitter. The tail current is a bit over 0.6A . Assuming fresh batteries ~4V under load that's 4.8 watts, and with typical 3.9v Vf for a XR-E @ 1A that's around 1.2A plus losses.

Is there an easy way to measure current across the emitter?

The light w/ 2 batteries and low stage on my L2 is similar to high stage on 1 battery (numbers from meter).

We all make mistakes. I have a 2-mode tailcap in one of my lights and I like it. Although the resister isnt that efficient, I almost never run it in low mode. In fact, thats true of almost all of my lights. lol Thanks for the report. Im still looking forward to my warm drop-in..

I just received my 5A tint drop-in today and must say that I'm quite amazed. The neutral color is so much easier on the eyes and brings out the natural colors in whatever the beam illuminates... just like the photos I linked to in the above posts. No wonder people still use incandescents. They have roughly the same tint characteristics. I'm actually glad its a single mode driver. It does many things well that I wouldn’t have expected - thanks to the neutral tint. For instance, I can look at things close up without destroying my vision and then use it as a mid length thrower to examine more distant objects... all in the same single mode! I have to adjust modes on my other white tinted lights to prevent bringing discomfort to my eyes while adjusting ranges, but not with this one. Also, this drop-in has a fantastic large bright neutral flood with a bright hotspot and an almost perfect beam with no chromatic differences throughout the entire beam width.
I haven't pulled tail currents yet but will say that its obviously not driven hard because it runs cool. I run all my drop-ins wrapped in copper foil to wick away heat from the drop-in to the host. Since this didn’t get nearly as hot as my R2 drop-in, I became suspicious. I left it running for half an hour and immediately pulled it apart to check out the internal temperatures and star to pill interface. All is well. That’s fine by me because this will be used for long night explorations deep in the woods, where runtime will be important. Besides, if it were any brighter Id feel compelled to mod it into a multimode, and then it would lose a lot of its quick aiming abilities while being easy on my eyes and semi-night vision. It will get a real workout this Friday night. I'm flying back into the Frank Church Wilderness for some camping, hiking, exploration and isolation. My 5A sits happily in my damn-good-looking chrome 504B with a thick GITD o-ring in the lens. Surprisingly, the o-ring doesn't block any of the beam output and glows like crazy when the light is off.
Great find Mr Agenthex!

I ordered it at DX due to the recommendation here. But after 3 weeks I got the message "sold out"

I got a refund and ordered this from KD: http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=9770

I would have preferred the 1 mode from DX, but will see how it performs when i gets here.

In the meantime I´ll consider this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280534988227&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_1956wt_955

which agenthex gave me a hint to.

The color is the main thing here not the brightness, so I´ll probably need to buy it anyway to see for myself

I gave a review of the Solarforce LC-Yellow drop-in here:

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/638#comment-9927

"
Just got the LC-yellow. It's similar but slightly better than the DX neutral. It's about 4000K as they said, but NOT a p3-8b. Draw is 1.1A instead 0.6A of DX one, so it's brighter, but slightly warmer (DX is maybe 4500K).


The driver's also different. DX maintains constant current at 0.6A, so with two batteries, it's about as bright as SF, whereas the SF ramps to about that on 2 cells. However the DX maintains its brightness better as 1 cell goes down.


So there you have it. Perhaps a bit better on 1 cells, tint is close enough, but not a huge win. Worth the price.

"

Biggest plus is that at least it'll be in stock.

Thanks for update and information on the Solarforce warm white. I think my KD is too yellowish,

so if I´ll get another one is gonna be the SF. Good that its brighter.

You know I got the Warm White 502B and that will be enough for the moment together with the

one from KD. I use them where I have to get as much natural light as possible to identify things.

Another data point on the LC-Yellow: as implied above, the output drops pretty quickly. When the cell is at 3.8v, the draw is only .45A